cruel and unusual
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Judge dismisses claims against El Paso County for jailed man’s severe infection
A man who suffered for weeks in the El Paso County jail with a visibly-infected leg and ultimately wound up in the emergency room cannot sue jail staff for ignoring his life-threatening medical needs, a federal judge has ruled. Daniel W. Plutt was serving a 90-day sentence in the county’s Criminal Justice Center, with staff…
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Appeals court upholds lifetime sentence for non-triggerman in Colorado Springs murder
It does not violate the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment to sentence an adult to life in prison without parole for a death they did not cause, Colorado’s second-highest court has ruled. Wayne Sellers IV challenged his sentence, the most severe punishment authorized under Colorado law, for the crime of felony murder.…
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10th Circuit tosses inmate’s lawsuit over COVID-19 prison protocols
A Colorado inmate has not plausibly claimed that prison officials’ allegedly-deficient COVID-19-prevention measures amounted to cruel and unusual punishment, the federal appeals court based in Denver has decided. Delano Marco Medina, who is incarcerated at the Colorado Territorial Correctional Facility in Cañon City, first filed a petition in federal court in June 2020, claiming the Colorado…
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10th Circuit says inmate cannot sue for cruel and unusual punishment over amputated fingers
An incarcerated man allegedly told his supervisor of faulty equipment on a work assignment and ended up losing two fingers as the result of an accident, but the federal appeals court based in Denver has thrown out his lawsuit alleging cruel and unusual punishment. Gregory Morris Sanders was working through Colorado Correctional Industries, the state’s…
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Judge grants immunity to prison officials in lawsuit about overcrowding, showering
Despite the reinstatement of an inmate’s civil rights lawsuit by the federal appeals court based in Denver, a trial judge has granted immunity to prison officials for the allegedly unconstitutional conditions they created in the case. U.S. District Court Judge Raymond P. Moore on Tuesday dismissed the claims of Larry Allen Thompson, who accused officials…